English

Noun

grazier ‎(plural graziers)

1. (Britain, historical) One who grazes cattle and/or sheep on a rural property.

   Graziers on the tablelands are in dire straits because they do not have enough winter feed and will have to keep reducing stock.

2. (Australia) The owner of a large property on which sheep or cattle graze.
   • 1963, Colin Clark, Australian Hopes and Fears, page 75,

     As a result of these causes the grazier marks himself off fairly sharply from the rest of Australia. He has always spent a considerable proportion of the time in the capital cities, in each of which he has formed a club to which, besides the graziers, only a few of the wealthiest and most prominent of the city dwellers are admitted.

   • 1996, Janette Turner Hospital, Oyster, Virago Press, paperback edition, page 44

     They have been here, the bora rings, for over twenty thousand years, it is believed; it is only in the past hundred, a hiccup in time, that indifferent graziers and the treads of their four-wheel drives have scattered the stones and have imprinted zippered cars across their sacred clay skin.

   • 2000, Bill Pritchard, Phil McManus, Land of Discontent: The Dynamics of Change in Rural and Regional Australia, page 34,

     The ‘grazier’ image can be contrasted to that of the ‘cocky’. Graziers have tended to own large tracts of land, have inherited family wealth from the heady days of high wool prices, often reside in stately homes, possess a good education, and have taken leadership roles in the industry.

Usage notes

In Britain, the term is no longer used, but has historical significance.